Awesome History with Stick Figures

King Limhi

Today's blog is about an activity we did in class that I wanted to share with you.   It's hard to understand the Book of Mormon without understanding the history and background information.  In my opinion, this goes for any book of scripture.  A scripture taken out of context is understandable, but when taken in context (knowing who the scripture was directed to and why, the culture, time period, location, etc.) it helps to deepen our understanding of what's being taught and how to apply it.  No, seminary isn't a "history class". But the history is like the "scenery" in a play.  It sets the stage for what's really going on.

(Sorry; bad lighting in my photo.)  Today we covered a stretch of scripture; Mosiah 19-22, which involves Limhi, his people, and their escape from bondage to the Lamanites.  We have four devotional groups in our class.  I assigned each group one chapter to cover.  Each group received one of the bags pictured above that corresponded to their assigned chapter.

 

In each bag are these little cardboard stick figures.  I went through the chapters lastnight and labeled the characters ahead of time.  Each group needed to simply read through their chapter, manipulate the stick figures any way they wanted to bring/act out the storyline, and then teach the rest of us what they found.  This actually made the storyline quite interesting! As each group ended their chapter, the next group would continue where they left off, which made for a nice, continuous story.

They have an "at-home" assignment tomorrow.  It covers more storyline in Mosiah 23-24 (Alma & his people).  On Thursday, we'll bring it all together, and we'll discuss the notable principles in all of those chapters (Mosiah 19-24).  We'll take a step back and "view the play with the amazing backdrop and scenery".

I'm very proud of my class!  They "get it", and I guarantee you that they'll never forget how they learned their Book of Mormon history from sticks.